142
S. F. BALFOUR
throwing or shooting since they are so thin that they would break if used for stabbing. Tools of soft stone for sharpening them showing traces of use have also been found.
Other polished stone artifacts found in great quantities are ornaments. These are made of shale or of carefully chosen brown or greenish basaltic rock or of quartz. They consist of rings, bracelets and of small discs or buttons, carefully shaped and polished and most of them very fragile. In some cases it is difficult to decide what part of the body they were meant to adorn. Most of the rings have a very thin section and they may have been used as earrings, the section being passed over the lobe of the ear, or alternatively they may have been belt buckles. The small discs may have been used as ear plugs. But these theories are by no means certainties. In only a few cases can we be sure of the ornament's use; for instance, a pair of identical brown shale bracelets with flanges on the inner circumference, can be slipped onto a very slender wrist. Their workmanship is remarkable, and a break in one of them had been repaired by drilling small holes on either side of the broken pieces so that they could be bound together with ligaments. The finish of many of these stone implements is very striking to people like ourselves who do not know the use of stone in our everyday life.
There are many existing populations who use stone tools and ornaments, but it is chiefly from the adze that we can derive some idea of the cultural affinities of this people. The adze is used over a wide area embracing the Indian Ocean, Polynesia and even South America. But the "shouldered" or "stepped" adze of the type found in our region is particularly found in the East Indies. A tool used in the way we have described the use of the adze is still common in those parts. It is therefore quite certain that early population of these sites had once a connection with the "Indonesians" or the peoples that settled in the archipelago between the Indies and Polynesia. The importance of the Hong Kong finds is that they establish beyond a doubt the presence of this people in South China.
But when we take the conjunction of these stone implements with pottery and bronze we are faced with the difficulty of determining how far these people were influenced by Chinese craftsmanship.
142
S. F. BALFOUR
throwing or shooting since they are so thin that they would break if used for stabbing. Tools of soft stone for sharpening them showing traces of use have also been found.
Other polished stone artifacts found in great quantities are ornaments. These are made of shale or of carefully chosen brown or greenish basaltic rock or of quartz. They consist of rings, bracelets and of small discs or buttons, carefully shaped and polished and most of them very fragile. In some cases it is difficult to decide what part of the body they were meant to adorn. Most of the rings have a very thin section and they may have been used as earrings, the section being passed over the lobe of the ear, or alternatively they may have been belt buckles. The small discs may have been used as ear plugs. But these theories are by no means certainties. In only a few cases can we be sure of the ornament's use; for instance, a pair of identical brown shale bracelets with flanges on the inner circumference, can be slipped onto a very slender wrist. Their workmanship is remarkable, and a break in one of them had been repaired by drilling small holes on either side of the broken pieces so that they could be bound together with ligaments. The finish of many of these stone im- plements is very striking to people like ourselves who do not know the use of stone in our everyday life.
There are many existing populations who use stone tools and ornaments, but it is chiefly from the adze that we can derive some idea of the cultural affinities of this people. The adze is used over a wide area embracing the Indian Ocean, Polynesia and even South America. But the "shouldered" or "stepped" adze of the type found in our region is particularly found in the East Indies. A tool used in the way we have described the use of the adze is still common in those parts. It is therefore quite certain that early population of these sites had once a connection with the "Indonesians" or the peoples that settled in the archipelago between the Indies and Polynesia. The importance of the Hong Kong finds is that they establish beyond a doubt the presence of this people in South China.
But when we take the conjunction of these stone implements with pottery and bronze we are faced with the difficulty of determining how far these people were influenced by Chinese craftsmanship.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.